« More on DBBE | Main | Cat 6 for Gigabit Ethernet »
June 27, 2008
Flood
So, last night when I got home I decided to take a shower. The boys and I were going to go see The Hulk (Iron Man was better) and I wanted to freshen up.
As I typically do, I started the hot water running before I stepped into the shower. It takes just a moment to for the water heat up and as this is about the same amount of time it takes me to drop my shorts the pre-heating/getting naked portion of showering typically works out to a tidily-timed single step.
I stuck a hand in the water stream before committing my entire body to the flow — you only have to step into water so cold that it reduces your nipples to the size of consistency of a Dippin' Dot but once to learn your lesson; scorching hot water is no treat either.
The water was tepid.
None of the boys had a look about them like they'd been anywhere near the shower.
We'd had a big storm the day before. This felt more than coincidental.
It also felt bad.
And possibly expensive.
Like I said, the water was tepid (which is French for "cold enough to shrink man parts but not so cold that you have to worry about brushing up against the shower tiles and etching them"), and I had a brief, yet refreshing, shower. The reduced man-part size made getting dressed all the faster.
After the movie I went into the cellar. In a moment it became clear that my cellar would not have been a good place to seek shelter from the prior day's storm. Sure, we might have been safe from the wind, but there's a good chance we would have drowned.
Based on the amount of water in a bowl that had been on a low shelf I had at least six inches of water in the cellar.
It's not a lot, I know, but it was enough to put the water heater flame out and, despite my best efforts, I was unable to get it restarted (either last night or this morning).
I called my brother first thing today, he's an HVAC guy, and he told me what I needed to do to fix it. He also told me he's going to crew for a racing boat this weekend in the Chesapeake Bay. This led me to suggest that if a captain were serious about winning a race that filling his crew with Wells Family Members might not be the way to go. My brother said, "No, I'm the perfect size for" … whatever that thing is called where you lean on one side to keep the boat from capsizing (he knew the term) … "One big guy is a lot better than two smaller people for that. Smaller people are good for" … other sailing terms that involved climbing and something to do with a sail… "but when it comes to drinking beer and keeping the boat upright I'm perfect."
Oh, if you're curious, I'm sitting at work unshaven and with bad hair. I do have clean pits and man parts.
Technorati Tags: Sailing, HVAC
Posted by delmer at June 27, 2008 7:59 AM
Comments
...and clean underwear, I presume? ;)
Posted by: Ginger at June 27, 2008 10:30 AM
As a matter of fact, I am wearing fresh underwear today.
Posted by: delmer at June 27, 2008 3:18 PM
I was totally curious about your man parts, so thanks for setting my mind at ease!
Posted by: Dave2 at June 27, 2008 6:16 PM
If it's any consolation I'm not allowed to shower until Monday because of my surgery but I have clean woman parts and pits.
And fresh underwear....In Solidarity, of course.
Posted by: Lisa at June 28, 2008 10:33 AM
yikes. glad you have clean man parts. but I don't think I'll ever be able to eat Dippin Dots again.
Posted by: Manager Mom at June 28, 2008 11:53 AM
Dave2: Perhaps you could give my man parts a mention on your blog ... I need to curiosity to spread.
Lisa: I'll need to keep the no-showering-after-surgery thing a secret from my kids ... otherwise they're start having things removed daily just to avoid the tub.
MM: I'm unable to eat Dippin' Dots anymore. In my case, though, it has more to do with them being too cold for my delicate tongue to tolerate.
Posted by: delmer at June 28, 2008 4:34 PM
Dippin' Dots and Man Parts?
Dang. I have no idea what a Dippin' Dot is - must be some regional foodstuff. Luckily, I do have an idea of what Man Parts are and that occasionally, they are more than decorative.
Glad you're keeping parts and pits clean.
Posted by: Ms. Q at June 28, 2008 8:45 PM
Dippin' Dots are super-cold pieces of ice cream about the size of aquarium gravel. It's my experience that kids love them and adults are sort of split 50/50 regarding their worth as a frozen treat.
Posted by: at June 29, 2008 2:38 PM
You sound so cavalier about a flooded basement. That would have been cataclysmic for me, but you're evidently a lot more able to deal with that kind of thing.
Posted by: Casey at June 30, 2008 10:56 AM
When your cellar floods that easely, why not install a small pump in it? An aquarium pump on 12V will do and is cheap. When power goes down you can even turn it on the car battery. And detecting whether there is water in the cellar should be easy for a technician like you:)
Posted by: Jack at July 2, 2008 6:21 AM